Following the his interviews describing himself as a ferrari in a league of fiats, the big Suede again offers a trademark assessment of himself. That being said he is technically far superior to his counterparts despite his age and I’d like to touch on the comparison made on him and Carlos Vela in particular.
As of today Carlos Vela has 19 goals and 9 assissts in the MLS as opposed to Ibra who has 13 goals and 3 assissts in 3 fewer games in the league. With that being said I feel it is important to highlight the events of the La Derby, inwhich Zlatan score an emphatic hattrick that in my opinion backs up all his rhetoric from this weeks interviews. Although this may not be the biggest occasion of his career it was a big occasion in the league and this suits him well.
This is where I will start my first comparison may perhaps be speed, which zlatan has never heavily relied on throughout his career this may be the ony physical attribute at which Carlos has the one up on Ibra but let us put evrything else into the mix.
Technically Zlatan remains a gifted player and this is displayed by his first goal with which he uses his body well ensuring he isn’t muscled of the ball. Here is where zlatans prowess is on full display from the moment he controls the ball on his chest the ball seems destined for the back of the net, he then leaves the first defender for dead by juggling the ball over his head, and given that he strikes this ball on the half volley on the edge of the box this only makes it more impressive. All this happening with the ”pressure” of a derby match.
In typicall Zlatan form this goal was scored from a header and if he was given more space, it is in his arsenal to produce a bicycle kick and this is impressive agility given his age. Lastly and what made me adore strikers like Ronaldo R9 Nazario is ambidexterity, for his last goal, Ibra beats the ball into the bottom right corner from outside the box with his supposed weak foot.
These factors in the context of the scale of the occasion justify his assertions that he is not only the best player in the league but a Ferrari amomg fiats. He has a mastery and controll of the ball that means he is capable of scoring from unorthodox positions and from his first goal where he draws two defenders out of position. Cements himself as the dealiest threat in the MLS.
Carlos Vela is not to be completely slighted at all as he is a competent striker in his own right his last hattrick came on a lesser occasion of sorts against the San Jose earthquakes. Two of his efforts were more reliant on his pace one coming from a goal keeping error and the other a well weighted pass from midfield exploiting his pace.
In all fairness his third goal showed quite some class as he tucked away a curling effort with his weakfoot from outside the box. I always give plaudits when it comes to ambidexterity, however can he do this when the pressure is on.
My dissapointment in Vela this weekend is that he should’ve somewhat risen to Ibra’s challenge and produced the same quality in the derby. The manner of goals scored by Ibra and the seemingly docile performance by Carlos in my opinion swing this debate in Ibra’s favour.
On a final note I would just remind everyone that Ibra scored four goals against England with an Underdog Sweden team and one of those goals was a fabulous overhead kick quit a distance away from the box. So I must ask this, If Ibra was Mexican or Brazilian or had the fortune of playing for a stronger footballing nation would a world cup still have eluded him? The same way I pity Messi for not being Spanish as he would have terrorised the world cup.
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